PROGRAM SUMMARY
Title of program:
GeneralVectorAnalysis
Catalogue identifier:
ADJP
Ref. in CPC:
116(1999)107
Operating system: Win95, Unix, Linux
High speed store required:
20MK words
Number of lines in distributed program, including test data, etc:
1171
Programming language used: Mathematica
Computer: Pentium II 150 MHz PC
Nature of physical problem:
The analytical calculations using vector calculus that appear in plasma
physics, fluid dynamics, and other fields sometimes can become extremely
complex. The complexity usually originates from both the vector
operations themselves and the underlying coordinate systems.
Method of solution
To implement automatic symbolic vector analysis in general coordinate
systems, we need a simple and systematic mathematical framework. The
modern viewpoint of 3D vector calculus, differential forms on
3-manifolds, is utilized for this purpose. On the other hand, a well-
developed high level programming language with a symbolic computation
capability is also necessary. To the end, we chose Mathematica by
Wolfram Research Inc.
Typical running time
Running time is problem and machine dependent. Running Mathematica 3.0
on a Pentium II 150 MHz PC with 48M memory, is takes about 2 second CPU
time to carry out a single vector differential operation to the second
order of the inverse aspect ratio in the large aspect ratio circular
concentric tokamak coordinate system.
Unusual features of the program
Asymptotic capabilities, 2D vector analysis notation, and a simple
interface for users to define their own coordinate systems.